Peach Tartin

We are renting this summer, two separate houses, because we are in the midst of a construction project.  This is the last weekend in this house before moving.  Ollie is holding court here.

A twist on the apple tartin with peaches.  The local peaches are really good this year so we are long on peaches this summer.  What you need here is a heavy 12″ frying pan preferably cast iron.  You could do this on an 8″ too just less for everyone.

We made a simple pastry (Pate Brisse) earlier in the day for this.   Use a Cuisinart, makes life much really easier.

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup really cold water

Put the flour, butter, and sugar in the Cuisinart.  Use the dough blade.  Turn it on until the butter looks like coarse crumbs.  Now you add the water.  This is the tricky part.  I am at the beach, so the air is so full of water that you actually need more water than less.  So in the city, I use 1/4 cup but out here I use 1/2 cup water.  Pour in the water, and pulse until the mixture becomes dough.  Wrap int plastic wrap and put in the fridge.  Do this a few hours in advance.

Preheat oven to 425

6-8 Peaches cut in half and pitted, 1/3 cup sugar plus some, 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, 1/4 cup bourbon, 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, 1 tbsp. vanilla.

Put the peaches in a bowl, sprinkle with sugar (from the plus some) and let sit.

Roll out the dough and set aside.  We put it in the fridge until we needed it again.

Put the pan over a medium heat and cover with the 1/3 cup sugar.  It will take about 5 minutes to completely melt and start to turn an amber color.  Watch it because it happens quickly.  Then take it off the heat, add in the butter, salt and the vanilla stirring constantly.  Then slowly add in the bourbon and return to the heat.  The ingredients might cease up but over the heat they will melt again.  Let this mixture continue to cook until it just covers the bottom.  If it starts to get dark, take off the heat.

Now add the peaches with the cut side down.  They should fill the entire pan.  Now take the dough and lay it over the top and tuck in the edges tightly so when you flip it over it looks like an upside down pie.

Put the pan in the oven for 20 minutes.  Then turn the heat down to 350 and let it bake another 25-30 minutes or until the crust is browned.

Take it out of the oven, let it cool, and then flip it over with a plate on top of the pan.  Voila!

It is really not as hard as it sounds.  You could do this with apples, apricots or even plums.